I don't think ICANN is to blame for the delays -- the delay is mainly on the European side.

Some background:
The ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency has put "eu" on the list of reserved codes to cover any application (7-Sep-99). The ICANN BoD has decided that codes from the ISO 3166 list of reserved codes covering any application are delegable (25-Sep-00). In October 2000, Christopher Wilkinson (Commission) reported that "ICANN will need a full proposal before an agreement can be concluded with the registry operator."

After that, an Interim Steering Group has identified several options for running the registry (10-Oct-00) and the Commission has proposed a regulation for the implementation of Dot.EU (12-Dec-00). This regulation will be considered in May (EP) and April/June (Council), according to the Commission. If all that works out, the Commission will call for proposals for running the registry. Then the Registry shall enter into a contract with ICANN, having obtained the prior consent of the Commission.

There are still a number of Dot.EU policy questions to be solved (naming structure, price, registry modus etc etc).